Like the others, I want more about the ever-stylish Augustus Sardius Rex III! The extradimensional pockets themselves aren't as interesting as their creator. While some more information about the capabilities and limitations of the pockets would be good, I'd like to see them lead off a scroll of fashionable magical apparel. After all, why should today's adventurers be deprived of Everclean material and Dragon Proof (tm) robes? Go to Comment

An item of this nature is bound to have some limits. Perhaps it risks breakage if it's used too often, or perhaps the user needs to understand how the lock is built to make the key assume the appropriate shape, so some lockpicking experience would be needed to make it work.

The item deserves a cool history: Who invented such a handy gadget? What did the Locksmiths' Guild do when they heard? What have wizards done to counter it? Once you have a sense of its history, you'll be able to tell what limits the Skeleton Key ought to have.

If it has virtually NO limits, such an item would become a potent magic indeed, the subject of intense interest from those who want locks opened and from those who want locks to remain closed...

"It has been found," hissed the Archlich. "The key to open the Tomb of the Elder God Hlithiss! Fetch it, my minions!"Go to Comment

These buttons of carved bone, inlaid with glyphs of bright gold, generally come in sets of six to eight (Although a set of 23 was once found). Each is decorated with a number written in an ancient script: Once sewn to a garment, they hold a potent levitation magic. Solidly pressing the first button will elevate the garments’ wearer approximately ten feet. The second button gradually brings the wearer 20 feet from the ground, the third, 30, and so forth. If the wearer steps forth from his position, the spell ends immediately. In any case, the enchantment lasts for only a few seconds, may only be used once daily, and has no inherent protection against falling. If the wearer presses a number higher that he can move without resistance, due to ceilings, tree branches, or other obstacles, the spell raises them as far as possible and then immediately fails.

Pressing a lower-numbered button when one is more than the specified distance from the ground will cause the wearer to gradually sink to the preferred elevation, so the buttons may be used to reduce the risk of falling great heights. Some sets have a “ground level” button, but this is not universal, even in sets that appear to be complete. More common are partial sets that are missing some numbers, or in which the missing numbers have been replaced with non-magical replicas. Go to Comment

The Sysygy Paradigm
The Astrologer-Wizard Langinon has discovered an Antediluvian ritual that “stops the planets in their courses”, granting the caster “power as of a god” if it is performed at the instant of perfect sysygy, when the sun and moons are in opposition. He is rashly determined to attempt this magic.

While the caster gains great power at the moment of sysygy, the ritual also unleashes a horde of life-draining extradimensional parasites, horrors imprisoned for uncounted epochs. Go to Comment

An alien creature has moved into the unused rooms of various buildings. It connects them with magical portals and begins summoning others of its kind.

While the things are menacing, they are easy to dispatch. Unfortunately, others soon discover the extra-dimensional connections the things leave behind: Connections that lead into dungeon cells, vaults, nobles’ palaces, and other vulnerable areas. Until the portals fade, thieves and assassins are almost unstoppable. Go to Comment

The Crypt
On a desolate hillside stands the crypt of one of the leading families of the land. For hundreds of years, their ancestors have been placed there. Unfortunately, if the rusty lock is opened, an unpleasant reality stands revealed: The elaborate marble sarcophagi are empty. There is no sign they were ever tenanted.

For centuries, the sinister lords of a rival house have been collecting their enemies and making them into undead servants… Go to Comment

One storm-filled night, when the darkness was sundered by lightning and the tower was filled with a black wind that howled like a damned soul, the Soundsmith was visited by a pale man, who handed him a strangely-wrought bell of unfamiliar metal and an even stranger commission...

The Black Bracelet of Quokul
This leather band appears similar to the other bracelets wrought by Quokul, but the bell attached to it is crafted of a dull grey metal. The thread it hangs from is a silken strand of deepest black.

Those wearing the bracelet have reported that the chiming of the bell reveals strange and blasphemous forms sliding effortlessly through the space around the wearer, moving through other objects, plants and even people as if they aren't there. It is speculated that these creatures dwell within a dimension or reality divorced from our own, a place of alien life too strange to comprehend.

Excessive use of the bell seems to draw the alien things' attention. While some of them are apparently incapable of interacting with normal matter, other creatures have lurked nearby, stalking the bracelet's wearer for days or even months. It is conjectured that these horrifying creatures are able to draw upon magical energy to travel between the dimensions and hope to prey upon those wielding magic. Go to Comment

It reproduces itself within the victim's system, becoming stronger with time? I could see an adventure where one of the Player Characters (...or the whole party: Why stint?) is dosed with Tracer Poison and must get the antidote before the steadily-mounting toxicity is too strong for the antidote to effect.

An innocent could be poisoned, forcing the heroes to guard them, or a "Most Dangerous Game" scenario could be played out, where inhuman hunters dose their prospective victims with the toxin to facilitate the hunt.

I, too, would rather see it as an ingested toxin, rather than a blood-borne toxin. A cruel GM might dose the Player Character's horse, rather than the character himself: While the heroes often take elaborate precautions to protect their persons, how many remember to similarly protect their mounts? Go to Comment

Go, Siren, go! We eagerly await the fruits of your twisted imagination! I suspect that they Kel'Regar could develop lifeforms designed to fulfill many of the functions for which a human society builds machines: Twisted organic "cyborgs" designed to prepare their foodstuffs, Plant-like organisms that extrude their clothing and protective gear, fungal material that hardens into effective hostile environment suits or protective coatings for equipment, or organic factories for useful chemicals. Go to Comment

A savant of unusual aspect, his mind shattered by knowledge beyond what it was meant to hold; Edros reminds me of the Middle Eastern custom of regarding madmen as touched by Allah, holders of wisdom denied to regular men.

"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." - H.P. Lovecraft

A useful and well-presented oracle, he's likely to cause the PCs as much heartburn as he prevents.... Just the ticket for an evil GM. Go to Comment

I suspect that their homeworld (and any established colony worlds) would be filled with lethal biologicals exported from their "poisonous" home jungles: Plants and animals to which they have some resistance, but which are lethal to most other species that share a similar biology. In order to colonize such a place, the original ecology would have to be entirely edadicated.

Siren's description of their biotechnology gave me images of a "Cthorran" biology, with specially bred symbiotic species and microorganisms serving as integral parts of their technology. Go to Comment

I liked the opening presentation, with the Kel'Regar investigating the alien spacecraft. Everything was well-presented and detailed.

I also thought that the racial background presented was nicely detailed and made their culture credible. While they have resonances with elves, they seem to be "Space Drow" more than just elves. The strange reactions they have to other races would make their behavior seem incomprehensible or evil to other species, while maintaining a bizarre internal logic (One of the usual issues with Drow as a race is how their culture seems to make little sense).

I'm impressed with the alien aspects of the race and their cultural quirks. Their emphasis on other senses (rather than the visual) was a nice touch. All in all, the Kel'Regar would be an interesting species to encounter. Go to Comment